With a week to go before our Christmas Day deadline we were (virtually) 156km from our destination of Jerusalem. It looked like it was out of our reach with the poor weather but with a Herculean effort with a few days to spare we managed to cover the last kilometres with a few spare for a victory lap around the city!
Thanks to all those who contributed to the virtual event over the last 6 months or so and in particular to our leader Peter Whiting who covered an amazing 2,733 kms and kept us all motivated with his excellent reports!
It gave us all a great reason to get out and exercise and put in the miles!
After much planning and design Sutton Coldfield Circle has launched its website. Tasked by circle council to develop and produce the site Brothers Peter Westbrook. Mike Gaffney and Konrad Wysznski engaged the assistance of a web design student Tasveer Gola from Sutton Coldfield College to develop and design the site. The main emphasis of the site is to inform people of Who We Are, What We Do and How To Get In Touch and most importantly to assist in the circle’s marketing activities and recruit new members. One of the key factors of the website’s design is to include photographs of circle activities featuring younger members so as to target this particular market. The site includes a Latest News page which details all activities about the circle which will be updated on a regular basis. Facebook and Twitter facilities will be linked to the site in due course. Why not find out more just go to www.suttoncoldfieldcatenianscircle232.com you will not be disappointed.
Kenilworth Circle’s first Hybrid Circle meeting at Chesford Grange on 14 October was a great success! There were 16 brothers in attendance and 1 visiting brother from Leamington Spa Circle who was also an observer. Dialled in on-line were a further 10 brothers and 2 visitors. Brothers met for a socially distanced drink before the Circle meeting and then reconvened after for a much needed drink and social catch-up!
The Chesford Grange Hotel has been extremely helpful in ensuring that the event was Covid-19 safe and ensuring we comply with all the guidelines.
Circle President Bede Hayes had this to say about the evening “It was great to be there physically with Brothers for the meeting although the circumstances were a little unfamiliar”.
In order to keep us occupied during lockdown, we decided to hold a garden competition to see how Brothers and wives had improved their gardens during this time. Pictured is the award of a £25 garden centre voucher to the winner, last year’s President Jeremy Kearns, who, with his wife Geraldine, had made the biggest impression on their garden. On the right, making the award during our second post-lockdown ladies’ evening, is Vince Conway, Press and Publicity Officer for the Circle.
As we approach the start of another football season, we have set-up a Provincial Fantasy Football League based on the official Premier League game (https://fantasy.premierleague.com/). All brothers and family members are welcome to enter. As well as representing yourself we thought it would be a fun idea if every entrant also represented their Circle, such that the scores of the top three representatives of each Circle are added together to give a Circle score. At the end of the season we are looking to award prizes to the winners and a small trophy to the winning Circle. To see how to play and enter please visit https://fantasy.premierleague.com/ Joining the league couldn’t be easier. Simply use the link below and you’ll be added automatically after you’ve entered the game. https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/z6ekyt or press the “Join an Existing League” link and enter the League Code: z6ekyt To give everyone sufficient time, the league is due to start on Saturday 3 October (Gameweek 4). So entries should be in by that date. Looking forward to playing against you this season!
Robert Hodges of Kenilworth Circle has kindly offered to set up the league and answer any queries you may have setting up your team. Robert can be contacted on robert_a_hodges@hotmail.com
Pictured are some of Malvern Circle Brothers and wives enjoying our first post-lockdown ladies’ evening. The Circle decided to postpone the first formal meeting until later and instead to entertain our ladies to dinner at the meeting venue. We were required by the hotel management to observe social distancing throughout as you can see and wore our very attractive masks before and after dinner. We were expecting Brother Director John Minister to honour us on this special occasion but unfortunately the dreadful weather prevented this. Sadly we also observed a minute’s silence before the meal to remember two recently deceased and long-standing Brothers – Stan Williams and Paul Mitchell. RIP.
